This he expounds confidently and enthusiastically in his "Life of
Moses." Philo in this book is not any longer the apt pupil of Greek
philosophers, nor the eloquent defender of the Jewish-Alexandrian
community against lying detractors. He preaches a mission to the whole
world, and he lays before it his gospel of monotheism and humanity.
Each Greek school has its ideal type, its Socrates, Diogenes, or
Pythagoras; but Philo places above them all "the most perfect man that
ever lived, Moses, the legislator of the Jews,[87] as some hold, but
according to others the interpreter of the sacred laws, and the
greatest of men in every way." And above all the ethical systems of
the day he sets the law of life that God revealed to His greatest
prophet: "The laws of the Greek legislators are continually subject to
change; the laws of Moses alone remain steady, unmoved, unshaken,
stamped as it were with the seal of nature herself, from the day when
they were written to the present day, and will so remain for all time
so long as the world endures. Not only the Jews but all other peoples
who care for righteousness adopt them.... Let all men follow this code
and the age of universal peace will come about, the kingdom of God on
earth will be established."[88] Nor is the Greek to fear the lot of a
proselyte. "God loves the man who turns from idolatry to the true
faith not less than the man who has been a believer all his life;"[89]
and in the little essays upon Repentance and Nobility, which are
attached to the larger treatise, Philo appeals to his own people to
welcome the stranger within the community. "The Life of Moses" is the
greatest attempt to set monotheism before the world made before the
Christian gospels. And it is truer to the Jewish spirit, because it
breathes on every page love for the Torah. Philo in very truth wished
to fulfil the law.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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